TED Ideas in Business are playlists that bring together talks of interest to professional audiences. Here, the art for “Hidden Trends and Systems” and “Skillful Presentation.”

For many, the words “professional development” conjure up memories of sitting in a human resources office, watching a series of awkward training videos and then taking a mandatory quiz. The TED Distribution Team realized: it doesn’t need to be this way. Earlier this year, they started to think about how companies could use TED Talks to get people thinking about their professional lives.

The team is now rolling out TED Ideas in Business, a collection of 25+ playlists curated around big topics in the professional world, like effective leadership, career development, the future of work, and good decision-making. The playlists range from “The Psychology of Success” to “Democratizing Innovation” to “Invasion of the Cyber-Workers.” Each list contains talks that can help crystallize goals, start conversations and spark collaborations.

“TED Talks offer so many ideas that are great for a business audience,” says Janet Lee, our Content Distribution Editor. “The hope with this collection is that it’s not just useful for c-level executives, but for anyone who is looking to better themselves professionally.”

Yahoo! Japan is the first of TED’s partners to offer this programming format. The full collection of TED Ideas in Business playlists is available to readers of the business-oriented website Yahoo! Newsbiz.

Meanwhile, Wells Fargo handpicked 85 talks from the TED Ideas in Business collection to make available to employees through their in-house intranet.

“Since we launched our first 45 titles in mid-January, they have been viewed over 40,000 times. They are getting watched a lot,” says Vanessa Walsh, the Learning & Development Manager for the company. “Meeting each of our over 265,000 team members where they are in their development requires new approaches. Using video is a powerful, accessible tool. TED allows us to quickly bring in compelling, relevant videos.”

At Wells Fargo, employees watch talks on their own (an online tool recommends specific talks for employees based on their development goals), and in meetings too. Walsh has gotten feedback that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The danger of a single story” sparked a great discussion about diversity at a meeting, and that watching Shawn Achor’s “The happy secret to better work” at an offsite session got a team laughing together. Walsh says, “Leaders are saying, ‘These videos inspired me to change the way I lead.’ It’s helping them to break the mold.”

At the same time, TED’s Distribution Team is working on one more effort to make sure that the ideas from TED Talks find their way to those who can use them in the business world. They recently launched a partnership with getAbstract to take talks, from both TED Ideas in Business and from the TED library at large, and distill them down into short takeaways that busy business leaders have time to read. “It’s a compact distillation of a talk,” says Lee. ”We work closely with them to make sure that each summary really captures the main ideas in a talk.”

TED Ideas in Business are not your typical business content, and this is evident even in the art that accompanies these playlists. The distribution team let loose when commissioning art, and our designer turned out fresh, brightly colored illustrations. “We took a really playful approach,” Lee says. “We realized that in businesses, people are used to seeing dry stock imagery. We wanted to make it fresher and more relatable. Something that a global audience can understand.”

It’s 1pm at Sitters Studio, and seven people are gathered around a table while Adora Svitak’s “What adults can learn from kids” plays on a whiteboard in front of them. On video, the then-12-year-old begins, “When was the last time you were called childish?” Nods around the table. “For kids like me, it happens every time we […]

Their names may both be Michael. They may even both be professors at Harvard. But Michael Porter and Michael Sandel offer up radically different ideas on business and its potential for good in their TED Talks, both released today. While Porter suggests that businesses are in a great position to tackle social problems — because […]

Comments (9)

tag64commented on Aug 22 2014

CharlineCaissecommented on Aug 20 2014

I love it!
TED is an such an inspiring place. Thank you!
I’ve did initiate a weekly TED talks review within our small Ticktickcheck inventory company team. We started off with some of my personal favorites and now all members do participate in content preselection.

TED does indeed deliver inspiration!

Thank you!

Macrocompassioncommented on Aug 20 2014

Gee! I wish you every success in what seems to be an original venture. I wish I could have my big idea included in your talks, so it could be further spread but nobody seems to be concerned about macroeconomics (which actually is vital to nearly everyone).

My idea is about how to think about the myriad activities of our world of business and industry– an make it a concept that we can handle and understand. Its a bit like the Gas Laws of molecules in a confined space, having known properties for all of their varied individual motions.

Ted Talks are an incredible learning tool for a large corporation like Wells Fargo. They have been a catalyst to launch development discussions and connect our team members to the outside world.

Pushpendra Palcommented on Aug 19 2014

Great initiative by TED community. Many multi national companies does not change their mindset with the needs of future generations. I also work for educating elementary students and college graduates on web portal http://careervendor.com/education/ to make their career shine.

brix100commented on Aug 18 2014

John Smithcommented on Aug 18 2014

Reblogged this on THE STRATEGIC LEARNER and commented:
Simply some of the best learning and thought-provoking content on the planet. Not a complete treatment of any subjects, but TEDTalks provide the initial “Wow” and the motivation to dig into areas and issues we otherwise might not even be aware of …